


Forsaken

by idrilhadhafang



Series: The Broken Edge AUs [22]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Dark Poe, Evil Snoke, M/M, POV Poe Dameron, Possibly Out of Character, Retribution, Supreme Leader Poe, What Was I Thinking, slasher elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 12:35:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12036006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/idrilhadhafang/pseuds/idrilhadhafang
Summary: In which one victory by Ben changes everything.





	Forsaken

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
> 
> Disclaimer: I own nothing.

 

 When Ben returns, Poe knows that he's not the same. It's not just the way that he's rumpled and messy, it's not just the fact that his hair's wild, but there's something in his eyes, something in his posture that suggests that something's changed drastically. And he's done something terrible. Poe just knows it. The unignited lightsaber in his hand shows that much.

"Ben," he says, "Whose lightsaber is that?"

"Uncle Luke's." Completely calm all the while, too level.

"Did you..." It's too horrible to imagine. "Did you kill him?"

"I didn't. I cut off his hand, though." Still calm. This isn't Ben. This is some sort of impostor wearing his face, but that impostor is not his husband. "I didn't want to kill him. I cut off his hand instead. He and Aunt Alora are in a secure state right now."

Poe has a good idea as to where that is. His own husband has imprisoned his aunt and uncle. He wishes that this were nothing more than a nightmare, but unfortunately, this nightmare is all too real.

"Ben -- "

"I killed them." And here, Poe swears that Ben's voice actually cracks. "I didn't want to kill them. They fought against me. Uncle Luke tried to persuade me to go back.. I couldn't."

Poe's frozen, torn between how to react in that moment. Ben's killed. And yet he looks utterly destroyed by what he's done...

"You lied to me the whole time." he says.

"I had to ease you into the truth."

"How were you going to ease me into it?" Poe says. "How?"

"If I told you all at once, it would have been more than you could take."

"It's..." Poe manages to find his voice in time. "It's still more than I can take. The fact that you did this. You, of all beings. How could you do this?"

"I didn't want to."

"Then why didn't you leave?"

Silence. Then, "It's too late."

And that...that hurts Poe. Just watching his husband become this...

"Come with me. It doesn't have to end this way. There's still a chance to leave. Snoke doesn't have as much of a hold on you as he thinks. There's still a part of you that's good. And he can't kill that. No matter how he tries, he can't kill it."

There's a knock at the door. Ben moves towards the door, opens it, and Snoke -- Yana, Poe realizes in horror. Yana is Snoke. Snoke is Yana -- stands in the doorway, a doorway that seems too small for his overly tall frame.

"Ben," he rumbles. "I was wondering where you were. I heard you defeated Skywalker in battle. My congratulations."

Ben moves closer to Poe, as if trying to shield him with his body. Usually, Poe would have relished in that feeling. Right now, he just feels trapped.

"You face a test," Snoke says. "The pilot. He seeks to manipulate you away from your mission."

"Just because you're manipulative doesn't mean everyone is," Poe says.

"Then I must have been mistaken when I heard you say that there was a part of Ben that was still tied to the Light? You always devalued him. He would have crawled on his hands and knees for you, a meager pilot, even as you denied and withheld and doubted him. You never wanted him to get too powerful, did you?"

"I wanted to protect him."

"Is that what you call it? Apparently in the language of humans, the word for 'protect' is the same for 'hold in low regard.'"

Snoke might as well have reached out and stabbed him.

"I love him!" Poe says.

"There is no such thing as love, Dameron. Obsession, possession, desire, perhaps, but not love." Snoke looks at Ben in this moment. "Free yourself, Ben. You don't need to be tied down by him any longer. He is a boulder around your neck, cuffs on your wrists. He is only restricting you, just like the others."

Ben squeezes his eyes shut, clearly unable to look Poe in the eye.

"Cut yourself free of him."

And Poe knows what he's asking Ben to do.

"Please," he says. "Please, Ben. He's trying to trick you..."

He's not scared for his life -- he knows that Snoke wants Ben to kill him. All his loves, one by one.

Ben looks at him, from him to Snoke, and the anguish is clear in his eyes. He doesn't want to do this. Snoke is forcing him to make a choice. Not a good one.

"Don't you want freedom? All he's done is hold you down and demean you. He's hated you. Feared you." Snoke is talking so many lies in that moment Poe doesn't know where to begin.

Ben's eyes...they're growing wet, and Poe knows he hates Snoke more than anyone else in that moment.   
He raises his blaster to Snoke --

\-- only for Ben to snatch it with the Force out of his hands. He pockets it, then waves his hand.

The ground comes up to swallow Poe Dameron in that moment, and all goes black.

  
***

The first thing that Poe sees when he wakes up is Ben's face, and already, he's afraid of what's coming next. Ben didn't kill him. He knows that. So now what's going to happen?

"It's all right, Poe," Ben says, softly. "I won't let him hurt you. I didn't let him."

"Then what am I doing here?"

"I persuaded the Supreme Leader that I could have you as my own. That was my plan all along anyway. I never wanted to leave you."

"You think that I'd join you?"

"I want you to join me." Ben's voice is earnest. "Fight alongside me."

"I can't. Not after what you've done."

"You will." Ben strokes his face. "You will."

***  
When Poe falls, it starts out from good intentions. Good enough intentions, at least. Love for Ben, love for Ben that's still burning after all this time. Ben never wanted to kill him. They both love each other too much -- and maybe that's where Snoke is weak. He doesn't understand love. Poe wonders what kind of existence the Supreme Leader of the First Order has to lead in order to feel the way he does. Not a good one.

They're both in danger. They're both in a lot of danger. While Snoke lives, they both cannot survive. Unfortunately, Poe will have to find a way to kill Snoke.

And then what? Will he become Supreme Leader? Even the thought of repeating the cycle is disgusting. He can't bear to think of all of this.

***

He plans on saving Snoke for last, but he moves up through the ranks. He spares the stormtroopers; they're apparently brainwashed into doing all this, and that breaks Poe's heart to even think about. Brainwashed. Stolen from their families. It's for one of those reasons that he kills General Hux and Captain Phasma, among others. For what they've done. He makes sure not to leave any incriminating marks. They were killed in their sleep. No more, no less.

Haranka is next. Then Narudar Ren. By the time he gets to Snoke, he's killed quite a few different people, and he has to appreciate the horrific fact that Poe Dameron, who never wanted to kill, has quite the body count on his hands.

Then again, what else is new?

Poe learns different ways of killing too. His trademark weapon is the Genoharadan poison blade that he picked up off one of his victims' remains. It gets the First Order talking about ghosts.

In a way, he moves like one. Fourteen victims so far -- fourteen ways to take a life. He's saving Snoke for last. Part of it is saving himself and Kylo Ren; part of it is the fact that justice is overdue.

Snoke is furious when he finds out, of course. "Kylo Ren should have killed you," he says.

"We can't both survive," Poe says. "It doesn't work that way."

Snoke draws his lightsaber. Poe doesn't have a lightsaber, but he's learned how to kill a Force user. Grenades. Mines. Things like that. Poe draws his grenade and fires.

The impact knocks Snoke across the room, and Poe decides he likes this grenade.

***

The First Order is in tatters, and Poe might as well fix the mess he made. Snoke is dead, long live Supreme Leader Dameron and his consort, Kylo Ren. Kylo is still stunned at what happened; Poe hopes that in time, he'll understand. He has to. Once he sees, he'll understand. For now, they have a lot of rebuilding to do.

They hold impromptu funerals for the fifteen beings that Poe killed, casting them out into space. Poe only hopes they're burning in the Corellian hells where they belong. Monsters. They can't go home again, of course, but at least they did the right thing. And Poe and Kylo can rule wisely and well, negotiate with the Republic. Stop the war.

The fight's not over. But Poe can hope that they can face whatever's ahead of them nonetheless.

 


End file.
